American Lion By Meacham!!

It's shocking to me how loud libraries are these days.

Aaahh that makes sense, then! I will preserve lol.

Y'all rock. Seriously some of the most considerate and ethical humans I've been around in the union world

no, I haven't. Worth a read? Is it sad? I googled it, and I'm thinking I'll check it out.

It’s not perfect but you gotta love Huck Finn for what it is. Mark Twain is simply a beautiful writer. Have you read Pudd’n’head Wilson? It’s brilliant, I think

My reading got replaced by YouTube, which has since been replaced by scrolling on Reddit/Tic Toc.

Our entertainment has evolved beyond books for all the reasons why our parents warned us about. There are literal teams of people working on ways to ensure that our eyes stay glued to whatever website, application or device we are currently working on.

My recommendation is actually shifting the medium. Audiobooks are a great way to stay visually engaged in a chore, but remain attentive to a narrative.

It will also help break the mental link between books as a chore and books for fun.

Pair it up with a mundane task like laundry night, food prep, or a long drive and see if you can remain invested.

Start a light series, finish a couple audio books and then pick up the next book in the series in physical form and see if it sticks.

Good luck. I’ve been exactly where you are, and it’s hard to get it to stick.

I already split my time equally between the subs pretty much.

You're going to "waste" time, whether you plan for it or not. If you don't plan your wasted time, it really will be wasted by procrastinating. You will end up doing something you don't really want to do (hi Reddit), and feel guilty the whole time about not doing work. Instead, put leisure time on the calendar and use it for just that, and put focused work time on the calendar and don't deviate from it. Your time will be better spent, and you'll not have to feel guilty about enjoying the other stuff. The other stuff is important to you as a whole person.

Hi there. Per rule 3.3, please post book recommendation requests in /r/SuggestMeABook or in our Weekly Recommendation Thread. Thank you!

All 3 get a 10/10 from me. What a journey!

I love the ideas in the series but the prose is incredibly awkward, even for something translated from Chinese. I loved all 3 books but have seen people bounce off of the first book hard because of the writing style.

Oh man, I didn't know it was a trilogy, the first two books were great! Guess I know what I'm doing this weekend.

This is on my TBR pile 📚

(these are good sci-fi recommendations that I feel are at least well-written enough. I may have a different/lower standard though. I can’t say for sure)

Children of Time. Only read the first book so far but it’s exactly what I wanted. Nice creativity with some hard science but not too much if you’re not into that sort of thing (I’m not). Also it was a 600+ page book I actually thought was worth the 600 pages.

Also important: it doesn’t beat you over the head with world-building. I’m not into world-building very much at all and I’d been getting disillusioned with a lot of the sci-fi/fantasy stuff because of that. Also the book has themes out the ass and I thought it was all executed extremely well.

Alternatively, The Expanse was fun for the 3 books I read of it. I think it’s mostly just a good space opera from what I’ve read and it never blew my mind but it does what it does well. My enjoyment of each book mostly came down to how much I liked the additional characters that dipped in and out of the story.

The Three Body Problem is really good too in my opinion. Haven’t read the third book yet but I think the series is pretty unique and doesn’t come off as derivative to me at all. A more methodical pace than a lot of books but I like em.

Revelation Space by Alistair Reynolds had great pieces in place and I liked the writing a lot, but it took it’s time a little too much for me personally. Other than that I’m sure they’re great books.

Vernor Vinge

Honestly, I've read a lot of other people's suggestions here. None of them come close to Gene Wolfe. The Book of the New Sun ruined other authors for me for years.

Nowadays I can enjoy something like The Expanse, or Children of Time, or Ancillary Justice... but they're not in the same league.

It honestly seems like people are recommending their favorites, or popular titles, but they certainly wouldn't be making the same comments if they've read Gene Wolfe.

I think we're in the same boat - nothing really comes close.

Commonwealth Saga by Peter F. Hamilton (2x books in main series)

The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe (4x books)

Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy by Cixin Liu (3 Body Problem Series)

They aren't directly related, but they are meaty and long with complex, well-written prose: Stand on Zanzibar and The Sheep Look Up by John Brunner. Near future, prescient.

I'd also recommend his Final Architecture series for a story that's more space opera. Same quality writing, but with a shift in sci-fi subgenres.

Dune, first three books

Speaker for the dead branch of enders game books

Three body problem series

Discworld - very good writing, very silly characters

Tess of the D'Ubervilles by Thomas Hardy is one I read this month. I loved the book, but it is definitely a tragedy.

Kim Stanley Robinson’s “Mars” trilogy. Well researched and incredibly in-depth.

I think it goes back to the intent of the author. If the book matches the niche the author is aiming at then it is fine. Commercial fiction should include the full range of expression from simple to complex. The lines are different for an author that is deliberately aiming for a non-commercial thing.

Readers will self-sort to the kind of books they like.

Second this...

I know OP asked for Gene Wolfe not Brandon Sanderson, and on the 'seriousness' spectrum The Expanse is much closer to the Saunderson end (fun/exciting), but the writing / storytelling is pretty high quality IMO...